Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

AM - ran the dog around the block. Noticed my left lower shin was hurting. Odd.

PM - Big Workout. My shin issue was still there, but I decided to start the workout and see if it would shake out. I did my standard 2 miles warmup, then an 8-mile tinman tempo on the Millville Hill Loop. I am doing 8x1000 on Thursday, and want that to be a really good workout, so no pressure for pushing it today. Warmup miles were 7:11 and then 6:38. It's always a good sign to be in the 6:30s during the warmup. Shin felt like it would hold up.

Mile	Split	Comment
1	6:04	gradual uphill
2	5:51	rolling
3	5:56	1/2 down, 1/2 up
4	6:41	The Millville Hill
5	6:04	3/4 rolling, 1/4 uphill
6	5:42	mostly downhill
7	5:33	downhill
8	5:34	rolling

 Splits were a little bit slower than 2 weeks ago, but it also felt easier, so I think it was an appropriate effort (I probably ran too hard last time). Also, I took a couple water breaks last time, whereas today was continuous. So I was pleased with this workout, and did not feel too fatigued at the end.

However, once I started cooling down, my shin flared up more, and became very uncomfortable. I noticed it during the workout, more on downhills and less on uphills, but it did not slow me down. But I was definitely dragging because of it afterward, and ended up packing it in a little bit early (13.5 miles for the day instead of 15, and no striders at the end). I'm a mileage junky, but not so bad that I absolutely need to be right on my schedule just to prove a point. But I must say that I'm a little disappointed not to get it, since today was an "on" day otherwise. I'm icing it right now, and will do some more ice and massage later. Assuming it's a shin splint, I've never had this problem for more than a day or two, so hopefully I can treat it and get rid of it. I don't really know what else it would be. I felt perfect on Saturday, and rested all day Sunday, so am a little surprised to have a ouchie right now.

My shin is still hurting today, perhaps slightly better than last night, but still uncomfortable to walk, and impossible to run. Why can't it be the other way around: impossible to walk but merely uncomfortable to run? I would much rather run than walk. In any case, I will keep up the regime of icing, massaging, and scraping. I think it's a bit of tendinitis.

I rode my bike to the gym in the evening, and did 40 minutes on the elliptical, followed by 10 minutes on the arc trainer. Fortunately, the shin feels fine on the machines, so at least I can cross train. The activity seemed to help the pain levels as well, which makes be think that heat will be a good therapy along with the ice. I'm optimistic I can work through this, and will look at this week as a "rest week"...all part of the training plan.

AM - biked to the chiropractor and back

PM - biked to the gym. 45 minutes on elliptical, 15 minutes on the arc trainer.

The shin is still hurting, but in general feeling a bit better today. I tried jogging around the parking lot of the gym today, and was able to run some. Walking hurts a lot less. I probably have at least one more day of cross training, maybe more. Lots more ice, massage, and scraping in days to come.

Today would have been a perfect day for a track interval workout. Instead, I was stuck on the elliptical. I manged to somewhat simulate my planned workout. Rather than doing 8x1000m with 200m rest, I did 8x3-minutes hard, with 1 minute rest. I was drenched by the end, and lost 2 lbs worth of sweat (131 lbs before the workout, 129 after). I biked to the chiropractor and back as well in the morning. Mustn't forget that.

Fortunately, things are looking up. I jogged around the gym parking lot a bit, and didn't feel much pain at all. Perhaps Cody's suggestion of using the TENs unit paid off? 

It's pretty messed up that I am currently on the first page of the mileage board, evening with being hurt. Hopefully nobody will get mad at me for counting cross training mileage, but it's their own fault for tapering.

AM - ran the dog around the block

PM - walked out to the LHS rec fields and ran laps in the grass. The first lap was completely pain-free. The second lap a felt a twinge in the shin just on the very short stretch of blacktop, then pain-free again on grass. Same with the next few laps. By lap 6 I could feel "it" the whole way around (although certainly better on grass than on blacktop), so I called it good at that point and walked home. 3.25 miles total, at about 7:30/mile pace. All in all, I was quite encouraged by the progress, since I certainly would not have made it that far yesterday.

First off, great job to all St. George finishers. It sounded like absolutely terrible conditions, but persevering through tough weather makes a runner stronger. That said, I'm not sorry I missed it. I found full results on active.com. Not sure if the St Geo web page has it posted yet.

http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?rsID=70542&orgID=234624&pubID=2

I think I am the only person on the blog who did not run a marathon this weekend. But if it's any comfort to St. George runners, the weather in Logan was just as (if not more) miserable than what you had down south.

Today I did a forced march from Blind Hollow up to Tony Grove and back. I call it forced, because it was my job to take down the flagging and glow sticks from last week's Bear 100, and I had 7 days to do it, based on Forest Service permits. Today was Day 7. Needless to say, with the cold, wind, and rain, plus my bum shin, I was not looking forward to it.

The route is 2700' worth of climbing on single-track trail, 6.5 miles each way. I was not sure if my shin could handle more than just a few miles of running, so I was envisioning hiking 13 miles in the rain, and taking up my entire day. I considered shuttling my bike up to Tony Grove and riding back to the car, but in the cold and rain that sounded worse than running.

Well, the run turned out well. I managed to run all the way up and all the way back (except for walk breaks on steep stuff). I made it up in about 1:37, much faster than the last time I did it, and then down in about 1:15. The trail was an absolute disaster: total MUD PIT. I chose to wear my Montrail Hardrocks, which was a mistake. By their namesake alone, they are much better on rocky terrain, and completely useless in muddy terrain. I should have gone with my other trail shoe, the Brooks Cascadia. Like their namesake suggests, they have massive tread, and good for soft, dirt trails. The mud was gooey and thick, and going down was flat-out dangerous. It was more of a slide than a run. I manged to avoid any superman dives, which is good for me. But the descent was much slower than it should have been. Nothing faster than 10-minute pace. But hey, I was able to run, so I was happy with that. No shin flair-up, and that alone made it a great way to end my week.

My other regrets were not bringing more dry shirts and more gloves. I brought an extra long-sleeved shirt and 2 short sleeved shirts, and one pair of gloves. All were soaked by midway. Did I mention that it rained the entire time, and I was out there for 3 hours? And it was under 40 degrees? It took me over a minute to take my camelbak off and open the car at the bottom because I couldn't get my thumbs to work. Then I just sat in my car with the heat going full blast for about 5 minutes before my hands were functional enough to drive. Then I went grocery shopping and tracked mud all over Fred Smith's.

Being woefully unprepared for this kind run shows that I'm both out of touch with trail running (I used to do it a lot more), and not mentally ready for fall and winter. I like 80 degrees better.

I hope my shin will be ready for a full week next week. I have a 90 minute massage tomorrow, and will also be getting my compression sock and a portable ultrasound machine soon. Along with the improvement I've already had, I'm pretty optimistic.